Chapter 901: The Money Is Gone!

After leaving the Jiang family’s old mansion, Li Yi breathed a sigh of relief—at least he wouldn’t have to tag along with his father-in-law to meet that big shot.

It wasn’t that Li Yi didn’t understand his father-in-law’s intentions. After all, earning the favor of a true top-tier big shot would bring unimaginable benefits.

Clearly, the old man was expanding his network and paving the way for him.

But Li Yi knew full well that he couldn’t go see that person right now.

There were simply too many things he couldn’t say directly to that person; one misstep, and he might be misunderstood as criticizing the government’s policies.

There was no way around it; the country was currently feeling its way forward, and many policies were indeed baffling.

For instance, even though they knew the nation’s strength was still weak, in order to demonstrate the benefits of reform and opening-up, the authorities began raising workers’ wages and increasing grain purchase prices.

They even went so far as to build villas for veteran revolutionaries, provide them with imported cars, and improve their benefits—it was almost as if a nationwide celebration was about to begin.

But the problem is that all of this requires money. As these large-scale projects and generous welfare benefits were implemented, the national fiscal deficit ballooned from 17.06 billion yuan to hundreds of billions.

Seeing that the national finances were on the verge of collapse, an even more audacious move was made—they turned on the printing presses!

Consequently, banks were constantly tasked with massively increasing the money supply.

To cover the fiscal shortfall, the central bank had no choice but to keep printing more money.

From then on, printing money became as addictive as a drug, turning into a cancerous tumor on the national economy.

Before the reform and opening-up, the total cash in circulation was only 22.959 billion yuan, but by 1985, it had skyrocketed to 83.9 billion yuan. In 1984 alone, the increase in the money supply reached a staggering 39%.

Years of rampant money printing triggered hyperinflation, with many prices at least doubling. Prices for consumer goods such as premium tobacco and alcohol even rose tenfold, leading to “panic buying and hoarding” in some cities.

This was only one aspect of the problem. What was most alarming was that, in order to control the severe chaos in the macroeconomy, the central government was forced to cut investment. In recent years, a large number of medium- and large-scale projects have been suspended or delayed, and even more projects will be scrapped in the future, including strategic projects such as Baosteel, the Shiyan Second Automobile Works, and the Daqing 300,000-ton ethylene plant.

The blind pursuit of scale and foreign technology has caused severe harm to the national economy, hindering the development of strategic industries such as automobiles, electronics, and aviation.

Take Shanghai’s Y-10 aircraft, for example, which was ultimately scrapped after 15 years of development… The Beijing Electron Tube Factory (now BOE) also saw its LCD project fail due to a lack of state investment.

However, an even more severe crisis lay ahead: serious problems in our economy meant we lacked the funds to continue scientific research.

Consequently, we gradually fell behind Western nations in electronic technology, and for the next thirty years, we were forced to endure the humiliation of trading market access for technology.

Under the strict defenses of Western nations, it became extremely difficult for us to acquire advanced technology. Meanwhile, foreign companies, relying on their advanced technology, had free rein in our market and reaped all the benefits.

Take the computer market, for example: in order to acquire more advanced technology, we were forced in the 1990s to drastically reduce tariffs, abolish import and export permits for computer products, and open up the domestic computer market.

As a result, foreign 286 and 386 computers flooded the market, and domestic companies such as Great Wall, Inspur, and Lenovo were completely overwhelmed. The “black price-cutting storm” unleashed by Intel and AMD in 1991 only made matters worse for China’s computer industry.

Since the vast majority of computer manufacturers were left with a backlog of chips purchased at high prices, they were saddled with massive losses. One after another, these companies fell tragically in the midst of this cutthroat competition…

It was precisely because he understood these causes and consequences that Li Yi was extremely cautious when drafting that document, taking care not to use language that was too blunt or inflammatory.

While being a whistleblower is certainly admirable, a look at the history of human civilization reveals that very few whistleblowers have met a good end.

Had he not been born under the red flag and raised in the warm breeze of reform, with patriotism ingrained in his very bones as a genetic memory, he would never have risked writing those words.

After all, given his current standing, even if the entire nation’s economy were to collapse, it wouldn’t affect him in the slightest…

……….

The car drove through the city for over half an hour before pulling up in front of a bank!

This bank was the designated settlement bank for Star Investment Company’s mainland branch, and the vast majority of the company’s financial transactions were processed here.

As soon as he arrived, Li Yi spotted Jiang Longcheng’s car at the bank’s entrance and knew they hadn’t finished their transaction yet.

Well, that’s it—Jiang Longcheng’s hundred million is gone for good!

Noticing that Jiang Shiying had already gotten out of the car behind them, Li Yi immediately got out as well and followed her into the bank.

Once inside the lobby, however, they didn’t see An Hong, Jiang Longcheng, Ye Jianhua, or the others. It stood to reason that super-VIP clients like them wouldn’t be conducting business in the main lobby.

With that in mind, Li Yi briefly explained his identity to the teller. Upon learning he was from Star Investment and had come to see An Hong and the others, someone immediately came over and escorted them to the second floor.

Upstairs, accompanied by the bank manager, An Hong and the others were in the process of processing their dividend payments.

After all, in addition to depositing 100 million yuan in each of their four accounts, they also needed to withdraw a portion of the funds in cash to reward the entire project team.

However, just as the transaction was about to be completed, they saw Li Yi, Jiang Longcheng, and the others walk in through the door.

Upon recognizing who had arrived, everyone stood up to greet them!

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Jiang Xue tugged at Li Yi’s arm and asked, “Why did you bring Dad along?”

Li Yi smiled and said, “Dad came to see Third Brother!”

Hearing this, Jiang Longcheng immediately asked, “Uncle San, is there something you need from me?”

Jiang Shiying glanced at him and said with a smile, “I heard you’ve struck it rich, so the old man sent me to take a look.”

Instantly, a sense of foreboding welled up in Jiang Longcheng’s heart!

Knowing the old man as he did, he feared he wouldn’t be able to keep that money.

But when he thought about the fact that it was a hundred million, he still wanted to put up a fight.

“Well, it’s just a small amount—not much at all!”

As he spoke, Jiang Longcheng shot a glance at Li Yi and Ye Jianhua standing nearby, signaling them to cover for him.

However, Jiang Shiying had noticed all his little gestures. He didn’t want to waste words on this kid and cut straight to the point: “You’ve really gotten big-headed, haven’t you? A hundred million is just pocket change to you now?”

“Uncle San, you already know?” Jiang Longcheng asked, a touch of embarrassment in his voice.

As he spoke, he shot Li Yi a resentful glance, but Li Yi pretended not to notice.

“Alright, the old man asked me to pass on a message: if you can’t handle this hundred million, keep a million for yourself and hand the rest over to the family!” Jiang Shiying said.

“Uncle Li, come on. You could at least let me keep half. A million is way too little…”

Before he could finish, Jiang Shiying cut him off: “One million is the Old Master’s order. If you’re not happy with it, you can go back and talk to him yourself!”

Jiang Longcheng’s mouth twitched involuntarily. The Old Master was the absolute authority at home—how could he possibly dare to defy him?

If he actually dared to, a beating with a belt would be inevitable!

“I… I’m not objecting!” Jiang Longcheng said with a helpless expression.

Ye Jianhua, standing nearby, couldn’t help but chuckle at his hapless expression.

However, his smile hadn’t lasted three seconds before he heard Jiang Shiying say to him, “Don’t you dare laugh at him, kid. Your dad’s already on his way here; he should be here in three to five minutes.”

The smile on Ye Jianhua’s face vanished instantly, and he turned to look at Li Yi with an equally resentful expression.

Seeing this, Jiang Longcheng—who had been in a gloomy mood—burst into a carefree laugh…

……….